ZPacks Duplex 3,000+ Mile Review

hey guys it's Darwin so over two years two through hikes and well over 3,000 miles I'm finally ready to review my Z packs duplex all right so before we jump into the review let me start off by saying I do not work for z packs I'm not sponsored or endorsed by them they did not pay for this review and two years ago I bought this guy with my own money alright so now that we have all of that out of the way let's talk about a pretty long-awaited review from me of my Z packs duplex now this thing has been on to through hikes with me a thru-hike of the pen holy trail and a thru-hike of the entire PCT tons of different section hikes I've stayed in it in some national parks I have put a lot of miles on this a lot of nights and I put it through the wringer so I'm finally ready to talk about it and tell you what I think long-term first let's go over the specs so the duplex is pretty much known as a tension tent which is basically a tent that requires tension to pitch it it's made out of a DCF or Cuban fiber material it has two vestibules it is considered a two-person tent typically I set it up with trekking poles which is great for me because double duty I use trekking poles anyways so it is designed to be a trekking pole tent but you can also set it up with tent poles that z packs makes exclusively for this tent or you can now have it upgraded to what is known as the duplex flex system which essentially turns it in to a freestanding tent it has eight guylines so it does require eight stakes to rainbow zippered doors a really meaty bathtub floor and a ton of mesh surrounding the bathtub to help it breathe now because it is DCF it's not seam sealed DCF is very water resistant so it definitely sheds water and it is taped to make sure all of the stitching and all of the seams keep the water out now overall the footprint of the duplex is pretty damn big I'm 6 1 and even when I'm laying in it straight as in if both snuggles and I are in the tent together and using it as a two-person tent I still don't touch the walls now in order to get that full 4 you definitely need to pitch it correctly and it can take a little bit of time and really learning how to get perfect pitch on this tent but once you learn it it pitches up really nice and has a ton of room inside a lot of people including myself also use it as a one-person tent and lace a diagonal in it to have just a little bit more room now the duplex does come in different colors and a few different configurations so you can get it made out of a thicker gray DCF which does change the weight and they also make a camouflage edition that is also a little bit heavier made of a thicker DCF but it doesn't stand out as much and it's not as transparent as something like the olive drop now the regular DCF duplex that is olive drab comes out on my scale to 21 ounces or 595 grams on Z paksas website they do say 19 ounces on it but like I said on my scale it came out to 21 ounces and that really could be because I still have a bunch of pine needles and leaves and crap in it but 21 ounces is still pretty damn incredible for a two-person tent now there are a ton of other reviews out there on this tent because like I said a lot of people really love it so I won't go into any more specs on it because I'm sure you can find a lot of information out there about it let's talk about my opinion of this tent after 3,000 miles on the trail and what I like about it and what I don't like about it so first off obviously what I love about the tent is how insanely lightweight and roomy it is as far as I'm concerned it is the only tent that is this big that has this much room and is that low in weight so that is definitely a plus for me and it's why a lot of other people like it number two it's really simplistic so what I love about tent design is I want something that's simple I want to just be able to throw it on the ground stake it out throw my trekking poles in it pull the tension and boom I have home now I've had freestanding tents in the past where you have to put down your ground sheet then you put your poles then you put your inner then you put your outer there's a lot of tents out there that have a lot of separate parts now do note that going with a tent that has a double wall is going to breathe better so that is less condensation however you the duplex in a bunch of different environments I've never found it to be a very condensation trapped in any ways where I've had some tense in the past that have been single wall and double that have just dripped with condensation so one thing that I do like about this tent is it was designed pretty well to be very well ventilated and the other thing that I absolutely love about the tent is it is made of DCF and I personally think that DCF is the perfect tent material the main reason is if it is raining DCF does an incredible job of shedding the rain because the material doesn't absorb water like silh nylon or any of the other nylons on the market sometimes so nylon can become like a sponge and really suck that water up once it's wet it takes a lot longer to dry out with the duplex I can take it pack it up wet and take a small 30-minute break during the day get some sunshine shake it out and it's already dry now going back to simplicity of the tent there's not much else to say about how simple this tent really is to setup now some people I've heard kind of have a problem getting the tension right in the beginning but once you've spent a few nights in the duplex I feel that it becomes pretty easy to set up and to answer a question that I get all the time there was never one night on the PCT where I couldn't set this up I set it up in tiny little areas big fields next to trees on top of rocks this thing will set up just about anywhere as long as you can get a stake in and then if you can't sometimes I even use a rock on the end of the line and then the last thing I gotta say that I absolutely love about this tent is how versatile it is so like I said for the most part I always use my trekking poles to set it up because I use trekking poles anyways but I'm about to go do a bike tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway and I can just take tent poles and set it up that way so I don't have to carry my trekking poles or for some reason I know that I'm gonna be doing some hiking where I absolutely can't stake it out I can upgrade it to the Flex system and turn it in to a freestanding tent so it's pretty cool that this tent can be set up in moto waise now for me about the only two drawbacks to this tent and the only two things like I guess I could really complain about would be number one the price the duplex comes in at the time this video at five hundred and ninety nine dollars so six hundred dollars for a tent is pretty expensive it is definitely the most expensive tent that I've bought and it's why it took me quite a while to get it you know I had heard about the duplex years ago but it took me quite some time to swallow the pill of paying $600 for a tent and then on top of the $600 zpx only offers a one-year warranty on all their products so just one year after spending $600 again is a little bit hard to swallow however even though Zee packs advertises that they are good for about a 2500 mile thru-hike and then maybe a little bit more now I have over 3,000 miles on this thing and it's still holding up great so obviously I told you how much I liked it and how durable it's been and how it's been holding up but I figured I would give you a little bit of a tour of my duplex set up I'll take you inside I'll show you the floor I'll show you the ceiling and just kind of show you the overall shape of it after 3,000 miles alright so here is my duplex all set up now I have both of the vestibules open right now I was kind of wanted to show you guys what shape it's in since I have put 3,000 miles on it there are no rips or tears in any of the DCF fabric on the top none of the seams have broken open the only two things that I've actually had to replace are my guide lines on two of the corners so if you notice this guy line down here on the corner is actually black the reason for that is because I set my tin up on some rocks and the guidelines were actually on top of the rocks and at night I had a bunch of wind and all night with the tent rattling back and forth in the wind the rocks actually acted like knives and sliced my my lines as you can see the DCF none of it has started to do laminate or breakdown over time it's all still in excellent condition all of my seams and everything are nice and taped still all sealed nothing has come apart and luckily I haven't gotten any snags in any of my mesh so all of that is still in really good shape as well now if we go inside and check out the bathtub it is also still in great shape now like I've said in the past I have never used a ground sheet with this tent now during my hike there were a lot of people that were asking questions about like the corners over here this little spot that you can see kind of right here this little black spot people thinking that those were rips in my DCF and my bathtub and those were actually just creases you know this stuff is kind of crinkly it does crease up especially whenever you fold and roll it up in your and your stuff sack or in your pack so those are just creases in the tent or dirt has collected so I do not have any holes in my corners over here none of these things are rips or holes from what I know there are no holes or rips in my bathtub if you look right here the actual repair tape for my tent it's still in there I've never used it so yep no rips no holes still holding great cruising up here you can see the ridge line of the tent again still in really excellent shape there's been no delamination and nothing's falling apart all the stitching still holding in really well and it's still just an excellent shape pretty much like the day I bought it so in the long run is it worth the $600 absolutely I think so and again I've had multiple tents that were much cheaper than this tent that basically did the same job it's just a shelter but at the end of the day having something that's super durable super lightweight super compact and super versatile is kind of a no-brainer for me and aside from the whole price thing I really don't have anything bad to say about the duplex which is crazy um you know a lot of times with gear I I look for things because every time I do a review I just say nothing but good things about a piece of gear people like oh well where's the negatives I really don't have much of anything to say except for positive things about the duplex it's a pretty great all-around tent again expensive so if you're kind of on a budget it's probably not the tent for you but if you're looking to buy that really excellent lightweight tent that's gonna last you quite some time this is definitely a good option if you haven't had a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram I'm posting a ton of new photos lately of some of the things that someone's not have going on throughout the week plus some pictures from my PCT thru-hike if you found any value in this video go ahead and hit that like button subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and as always guys thanks for watching [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Darwin onthetrail

Views: 244,541

Keywords: Zpacks, Duplex, Gear Review, UL Hiking Gear, UL Backpacking, PCT, PCT Thru Hike, Pacific Crest Trail, Pinhoti Trail, Zpacks Duplex, DCF

Id: pCV2AgGG49g

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2018